Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1472993
1 2 A U G U S T 2 0 2 2 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Penn State men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry will renew acquaintances with a familiar team this season. In November, the Nittany Lions will play host to Butler in the 2022 edition of the Gavitt Tipoff Games. Shrewsberry served on the Bulldogs' staff — first as coordinator of basketball operations, then as an assistant coach — from 2007-11. The game, Penn State's first matchup with Butler since 1992, will take place Nov. 14 at the Bryce Jordan Center. The tipoff time will be an- nounced at a later date, and the game will air on either the Big Ten Network or FS1. The annual Gavitt Games series is made up of eight games pitting Big Ten teams against Big East counterparts. The inaugural series took place in 2015. In the time since, Penn State has compiled a 2-1 record against its Big East opponents. In their most recent Gavitt Games appearance in November 2019, the Nittany Lions defeated Georgetown 81-66 in Washington, D.C. The Lions are also set to participate in the 2022 Charleston Classic the weekend before Thanksgiving, while the ACC/Big Ten Challenge will pit Shrewsberry's crew against Clemson. The matchup with the Tigers is set for Nov. 29 and will take place at Clemson's Littlejohn Coliseum. The television arrangements and tipoff time have not been set. Penn State is currently in the midst of an eight- week stretch of summer workouts. Among the participants are the team's five recently arrived freshmen: guards Kanye Clary, Jameel Brown and Evan Mahaffey, and forwards Kebba Njie and Demetrius Lilley. — Nate Bauer Four months after leading Penn State to its ninth national championship in the past 12 years, wrestling coach Cael Sand- erson has signed a contract extension to stay with the program. The news was first reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on July 6 and later confirmed by BWI. Details of the agreement were not dis- closed. Penn State has historically not re- leased information about coaches' con- tracts, aside from its head football coach. Because of that policy, it was not known how far along the 43-year-old Sanderson was in his previous deal, and it's uncer- tain how far into the future this new one extends. Sanderson took over the Nittany Lions' wrestling program ahead of the 2009- 2010 season. In the years since, Penn State has become one of college athletics' reigning dynasties. In addition to their nine NCAA championships, the Lions have also claimed 32 individual titles un- der Sanderson's direction. While Penn State is unlikely to disclose Sanderson's contract details, he was not included in the university's right-to- know report from the 2020-21 fiscal year. The report includes a section listing Penn State's top 25 salaries paid to employees who are not officers or directors. The cut- off for that list was $662,311. We also know that Iowa recently set the public-facing market for wrestling coaches. Per Hawk Central, the seven- year deal that Hawkeyes coach Tom Brands signed in March will net him a base salary of $550,000 for the 2022-23 season, with annual increases ranging from $25,000 to $75,000 in the years that follow. During the 2028-29 season, the last year of the pact, Brands will receive a base salary of $800,000. Sanderson has routinely led Penn State over Iowa at both the team and individual levels. So, he would have every reason to request and receive more money. In a recent interview with BWI's Nate Bauer, new Penn State athletics direc- tor Patrick Kraft brought up Sanderson's legendary run while discussing how the football program and the Olympic sports fit into Penn State's athletics department and the larger university community. "Football is critically important," Kraft said. "I would argue that football and basketball really drive [the] national narrative. But, when you win a national championship like Cael does, that sense of pride in the community is huge. Cael is the greatest ever. "Char [Morett-Curtiss] winning a field hockey national championship or Erica [Dambach] winning [a women's soccer] national championship — those things help build blocks to creating a program. "So yes, I've heard it's [all about] foot- ball. It's important, and it drives a lot of the revenue that helps us with the other programs. But that doesn't mean you have to take away from anybody else. And I think that comes with open dialogue and communication and partnership and honest feedback with one another." ■ Cael Sanderson Receives Contract Extension G R E G P I C K E L | G R E G . P I C K E L @ O N 3 . C O M Coach Cael Sanderson has turned Penn State into a college wrestling superpower in his 13 seasons. Of the school's 10 national championships, nine have come during the Sanderson era. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS SANDERSON'S YEAR-BY-YEAR RECORD YEAR DUALS NCAA 2010 13-6-1 9th 2011 17-1-1 1st 2012 13-1-0 1st 2013 13-1-0 1st 2014 15-1-0 1st 2015 11-4-0 6th 2016 16-0-0 1st 2017 14-0-0 1st 2018 14-0-0 1st 2019 14-0-0 1st 2020 12-2-0 Canceled 2021 6-0-0 2nd 2022 17-0-0 1st Lions Set To Appear In Gavitt Tipoff Games